North Korea launched several unidentified projectiles early Wednesday morning, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff informed to the Yonhap news agency.
The JCS reported that the missiles were fired from the Hodo peninsula in South Hamgyong Province on North Korea’s east coast.
The incident marks the second time in less than a week the North Korean military has launched missiles from inside the secluded Asian state. Last Thursday, two new short-range ballistic missiles were test-fired into the Sea of Japan, the first time North Korea had launched missiles since its leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump met last month to continue denuclearization talks.
The missiles fired last week never posed an actual threat to the U.S. or South Korea.
“We are aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea and we will continue to monitor the situation,” a senior Trump administration official told CNBC on Tuesday.
Trump met with the North Korean leader at the Demilitarized Zone on June 30, which U.S. officials anticipated would feature renewed peace talks between the two countries after the pair’s second face-to-face meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, failed to gain traction once Trump delivered a note to Kim commanding he hand over his country’s entire nuclear weapons arsenal and bomb fuel.
North Korea did signal to Washington that negotiations would likely stall if the U.S. participated in a planned military exercise with South Korea next month.
Under Kim’s regime, North Korea has launched more than 90 missiles and conducted four nuclear weapons test — greater than the number of projectiles fired by his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
